Earls Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Denver

This place was conveniently located by our hotel, and their posted menu caught our eye while the three of us were walking by in search of brunch/lunch. We were quite hungry and were so undecided (so many menu items sounded delicious), so we ended up ordering a bunch of dishes to share family-style so we could taste everything! We were not disappointed!!

I can't remember what my husband drank, but I ordered the $5 frozen pink lemonade and it was wonderfully refreshing on such a hot day. I drank two and felt pretty tipsy (though admittedly I am a lightweight and had also not eaten yet. The drinks came out quickly, well before the food.) Service was professional, polite, and expedient.

Environment-wise - it was a nice, open restaurant. We were near the windows, which were open since it was such a beautiful day. Tall ceilings and modern decor. I liked looking at their lighting.

We ordered... (Pictures posted to match)

Top Left: Blackened Swordfish Tacos: Two flour tortillas with melted white cheddar, roasted jalapeño crema, pico de gallo, fresh cilantro

Bottom Left: Dragon Roll: Marinated ahi tuna, avocado, yam, tamago, spicy mayo, tobiko

Top Right: Truffle Fries: custom salt and pepper blend, truffle aioli

Bottom Right: King Blue Cheese Filet: Filet Tenderloin with King Blue Cheese sauce, with buttery garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal asparagus.

Frankly, all were delicious. The tacos were light and flavorful. I found them to be too spicy for me (but I'm a wuss when it comes to spice). The guys loved them though. The dragon roll was light and tasty. Not sure what the sauce was, but you didn't even need soy sauce. It was yummy on it's own. The filet was just right at medium-rare. Definitely the most substantial and filling part of the meal, but very juicy and the blue cheese was just the right amount. Buttery garlic mashed potatoes... yum!

After all this, the boys wanted a tiny bit more food, so they ordered the Hawaiian Coconut Shrimp (not pictured). It was a very small dish, considering the cost. Good flavor, but I was too stuffed to eat more than a bite!

We were full to order any dessert.

The only reason I gave this a 4 and not a 5 is because I felt the prices were a bit on the high side for some dishes, especially given their...

I've come to Earl's multiple times. They have a fabulous Cobb salad + shrimp and a wonderful lychee-tini. This is what I order every time. The food is always great and the cocktail is always great too. Every time until today, I've received my order in a timely fashion. Today, though, while sitting at the bar, it took 34 (thirty-four) minutes for my Cobb salad to arrive (I know because I looked at my phone when the salad arrived, and when I got the check, I looked at when the order had been placed). I could see the place was busy, but that's still no reason to take 34 min to prepare a salad. No allergies, no fancy request, just what's on the menu. They get the drinks ready faster than the food (the bartenders make heroic efforts to get the patrons their drinks as fast as possible, they all deserve a raise, it's like watching them do a fancy workout because they rush left and right so fast), but so the result today was that I had time to (very slowly, waiting for my food, trying to save some of the lychee-tini for when I had my salad) drink two lychee tinis long before my salad arrived, and they don't give you any bread or crackers to eat while you wait. I can handle two lychee-tinis without food (and I walked to Earl's from my hotel, no driving involved) but if you're a restaurant on the 16th St Promenade, you have to be able to handle Saturday night customer flow in a timely fashion. 34 min for a salad is not ok. I had to ask the bartender to check on my salad and she had to go twice (the second time not because I asked again but because she'd told me it'd be out any minute the first time, "they are putting the shrimp on it right now" and the salad was not there.) Increase the staffing in the kitchen, etc. There's a real possibility that someone could get tipsy from getting their drinks in time but not their food at Earl's, and if they get into a car accident afterwards, it's not going to be a good look for this establishment. I love this place and the wonderful staff and the delicious food and the fabulous atmosphere, but please fix your staffing (or whatever you have to fix) so you don't end up in the news for wrong reasons. Thanks for reading....

I’ve been to Earls many times. In Tyson’s corner, in Plano, Toronto… and I always find it to be well managed, organized , and very customer focused- I think I did a review of one of the locations way back and gave it 4+ stars. Well, we must have found the one night In Denver when Earl handed the keys over to … maybe the dude who runs the dive bar Down The road (well, I know - that’s not fair to dive bars and I do love Dive Bars). Bottom line was that service was awful, the bartender was slow and at mostly unfocused on the very light traffic at the bar in some inattentive, sporadic methodology . Worst though, was the Rag. The rag that she used to clean our bar spot, after sitting there for 7 min (that’s a guess because I only started timing after 5 min when we realized she was deeply engrossed In A conversation with a group across the bar and may not turn our way). That rag stunk. And stunk our two bar spots. 30 min later, there was a reprise of the smelly ghastly rag when a couple sat down. Service was poor. She seemed like she was new to bar service. We waited a long time between drinks and ordering food. Her manager tried to help but to some minimal level of professional acclaim. She was nice when we spoke with her- maybe an off night for her or a first week? By the way, as a Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt (there should be statistically 3 of you reading this) - there were so many 5S opportunities! Regardless, We decided to bail after prolonged poor service , watching other bar sitters getting annoyed, and that rag that kept getting used! At least Miami won. We ended up going to Coyote Ugly down the block- and the service was outstanding!!! :-) I’m still going to Earls - it is a quality place - just assume this was an anomaly! And that they throw out that smelly rag! The 3 stars are for my memories from all the other Earls that have been awesome. Good...